by James Taylor
‘We find that the English recruiting posters are much more attractive than any we have been able to secure here.’
Mr Thos. B. Lee, 30, Front Street East, Toronto, 24th December 1915
‘The reason I am asking for this particular one (“THE FLAG”) is the fact that we have also here in Canada quite a number of Recruiting Posters, but nothing that seems to have caught the eye as much as the one referred to.’
Mr A.H. Abbott, Hon. Sec., Speakers’ Patriotic League, University of Toronto, 19th April 1916
‘We can assure you that the posters which you have sent have been distributed not merely in our Division but also throughout Canada, and they have done good work.’
Miss M.S. Chase, Kentville, Novia Scotia
‘Accept our thanks for your splendid posters. They are doing their work.’
South Africa
In July 1915, South Africa formed the South African Overseas Expeditionary Force (SAOEF) and this force of volunteers was placed under British operational command for activities on the Western Front. Britain still had strong imperial bonds with South Africa despite the recent protracted Boer Wars against the British Empire that led to independence from Britain.
During the Second Boer War (1899–1902), Louis Botha, the Prime Minister of South Africa during World War I, and Jan Smuts, the Defence Minister, had served as generals. Although both men faced widespread Afrikaner discontent and opposition at home, they were united in their resistance to the German Empire and became prominent members of the British Imperial War Cabinet. In turn, the British government realised that their faces and words were of enormous value (especially Botha) in terms of recruitment, and posters were produced highlighting their military achievements and deeds to help recruit soldiers for the British Empire war.46
Poster combining Kitchener image and Botha’s words (IWM)
One poster from the IWM’s collections (reference: PST 12329) combined words from Botha with Leete’s war cartoon of Kitchener, featured at the top of the poster. It contained the words ‘GENERAL BOTHA says: “The South African Brigade in Europe has won a splendid reputation, not alone as fighters, but also as gentlemen. The honour and the name of South Africa have been enhanced and enriched by the heroic deeds of her sons.”’ It carried the slogan ‘South Africans! YOU’RE WANTED – Roll Up! Attest!’ It was printed by D.F.A. Ltd. in Kimberley, probably in 1915.
Official South African military records show that, in terms of military contributions and casualties, ‘More than 146,000 whites, 83,000 blacks and 2,500 people of mixed race and Asians served in South African military units during the war, in German South-West Africa and 30,000 on the Western Front. An estimated 3,000 South Africans also joined the Royal Flying Corps. The Commonwealth War Graves commission has records of 9,457 known South African War dead during World War I.’
Gujarati language poster (IWM)
The co-operation of the South African government and the ideal geographical position of the country aided Britain with essential rest stops and safe ports, and provided a strategic advantage in defending her Empire and ensuring that vital sea lanes to the British Raj remained open.47
Messrs. Stuttaford’s Stores, Cape Town, 21st August 1915
‘Our windows have been posted up with them and they were quite a distinguished feature, as all other posters used were only locally done, and but few designs. The coloured ones were particularly effective. You will probably know that Cape Town has given the lead to South African recruiting, for which, no doubt, your posters have contributed greatly.’
Mr F.W. Cooper, Librarian, Public Library, Port Elizabeth, 17th April 1916
‘The posters which you kindly sent us from time to time have been extensively used during the recent recruiting campaign for German East Africa.’
India
Recruitment in India during the British Raj was voluntary. The British Indian Army was the largest of the colonial military forces raised from the native population and led by British officers. It has been estimated that more than 1.5 million men were active during the war, serving in every major theatre of operations.
Indian recruitment poster (Priv.)
Posters were specifically designed to recruit Indian soldiers using images of India. A variant of Leete’s Kitchener war cartoon was used for one poster, but not in fact for recruitment – rather, it was to promote the sale of war bonds. An example is now part of the IWM’s collections. It was designed by B.J. Evans, circa 1918, and printed in Gujarati, a language widely spoken in India.
Letters sent home by Indian soldiers from the Front provide valuable insights into their thoughts and feelings about the conflict. They knew that their letters were being censored and so they developed ways to circumnavigate the monitoring and censorship. David Omissi, writing about India and the Western Front (BBC online history), observed how one soldier wrote home in a coded language, stating that ‘the black pepper is very pungent, but only a little remains’ – meaning that the Indian troops (black pepper) were fighting very fiercely, but had suffered heavy losses, and implying that enlistment was therefore unwise.
Poster by David Henry Souter, 1917 (LoC)
For many Indians there was a strong sense of honouring their clan or caste, and also of personal duty to the Emperor-King George V, far more so than to Lord Kitchener. Although Lord Kitchener had been Commander-in-Chief in India (1902–1909) and had ambitious plans to reorganise and redistribute the army there, he had fallen out with the Viceroy Lord Curzon of Kedleston, who initially supported his appointment. Kitchener lobbied hard to try to become Viceroy of India but was blocked by John Morley, the Secretary of State for India, who threatened resignation if Prime Minister Herbert Asquith intervened. In the absence of his backing, Kitchener was unable to secure the post.
Money was also a motivator for many Indian soldiers. An infantryman was paid a modest eleven rupees per month, however, this still would have represented a very welcome addition to the arduous peasant life familiar to many soldiers. By November 1918 more than 825,000 Indians had enlisted, in addition to those already serving, and official figures indicate that more than 65,000 Indian soldiers died in the war.
Australia
On 4th August 1914, The Age newspaper announced that ‘The Commonwealth Ministry this afternoon, after a lengthy meeting and consultation with the Governor-General, clearly indicated that Australia was willing to do her share in upholding the Empire.
‘The announcement was made by the Prime Minister who said: “The Government has decided in the event of war to place the Australian vessels under the control of the British Admiralty. We have also decided, in the event of war, to hand over to the Imperial Government an expeditionary force of 20,000 men of any suggested composition to any destination desired by the home Government, and the cost and despatch and maintenance will be borne by the Commonwealth Government.”’
Poster appealing directly to the viewer (NMA)
The commitment and passionate support for Britain was followed by fighting talk, as reported in the Sydney Morning Herald on 6th August 1914: ‘Germany stands before the world discredited, a breaker of treaties, and an assailant of weaker nations. All this has given Great Britain a dominant place at the very beginning of hostilities. She is thrice armed with a just quarrel, she has gathered her Empire together in such a solid array… and she has vindicated every step she has taken in the path which threatens to run with blood before the end is reached.
Australian World War II poster (IWM)
‘What remains for us is to possess our souls in patience, while making the necessary contributions of time, means and men to carry on. It is our baptism of fire. Australia knows something of the flames of war, but its realities have never been brought so close as they will be in the near future and the discipline will help us to find ourselves. It will test our manhood and womanhood by an immediate local pressure, even though we never hear a shot fired or get a glimpse of the foe.’
As the Australian educationalis
t and historian Jeremy Sinclair noted: ‘the experience of World War I consolidated Australians’ pride in themselves, as many saw the new nation bloodied on the battlefield. The emergence of the ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) legend brought ideas of Australian identity into sharper focus, but in many ways the war experience strengthened loyalty to the British Empire. The war opened up deep divisions in Australia, culminating in the bitter debates over conscription in 1916 and 1917.’48
Lord Kitchener had visited Australia before the war in 1910 to recommend a new scheme of military training based on conscription. Conscription, however, was an emotive subject in a country with a strong Irish Catholic population and with a union movement concerned about the importation of cheap foreign workers if conscription was introduced. However, the two referenda of 1916 and 1917 were both defeated, and as the records of the National Archives of Australia succinctly summarised: ‘The conscription referenda were divisive politically, socially and within religious circles. Newspapers and magazines of the time demonstrate the concerns, arguments, and the passion of Australians in debating this issue. The decisive defeat of the second referendum closed the issue of conscription for the remainder of the war.’
The Australian Imperial Force was a volunteer force formed on 15th August 1914, shortly after the declaration of war. Strictly speaking, the First Australian Imperial Force (1st AIF) was the main expeditionary force during World War I and it was generally known at the time as the AIF. Today, it is referred to as the 1st AIF to distinguish it from the 2nd AIF, which was raised during World War II. The 1st AIF included the Australian Flying Corps, which was later renamed the Royal Australian Air Force.
The Imperial War Museum contains a striking circular poster design (IWM reference: PST 16572) that features Winston Churchill in place of Kitchener. Churchill’s outstretched arm and pointing finger are accompanied with the slogan ‘Your Country Needs YOU!’ Join the A.I.F NOW!’ Judging from the age and appearance of Churchill, this was certainly issued during World War II. However, another adaptation closer to Leete’s LORD KITCHENER design was printed in Australia during World War I. It was simply entitled CARRY ON! An example printed by S.T.L. between 1915 and 1918 can be found in the IWM’s collections and in the National Library of Australia in Canberra.
The arrival of British recruitment posters was recorded in South Australia in the Adelaide newspaper The Register, which noted on 9th April 1915: ‘A cable message was published on Thursday announcing that Earl Kitchener was calling for more men for the front. In view of this appeal it was interesting to peruse a set of recruiting posters from England, which were exhibited in the window of Messrs. Crawford & Co.’s premises in King William Street. Mr R.H. Crawford received the sheets by the latest mail from England.
Australian adaptation of Leete’s Kitchener cartoon (IWM)
‘One of the posters bears the drawing of a bugler in full uniform. It is inscribed: “Another call. More men and still more men, until the enemy is crushed”. A second paper is adorned with a picture of a member of an advance guard spying out the land. It urges: “Britons! Your country wants you”. [A similar slogan to the London Opinion BRITONS – WANTS YOU poster, although in this instance a different design.] An additional notice asks: “What have you done for your Empire? Now is your chance to show what you can do”. A poster, which should especially appeal to Australians, says, “Be a sportsman, and lend a hand to the lads at the front. They want your help.” Those who cannot go to the war are advised in one placard: “If you can’t join the army yourself, get a recruit.”’
Lindsay’s stirring ‘The Trumpet Calls’ (Museum Victoria)
From mid-June 1915, there was a substantial increase in Australian recruitment. The recruitment drive was put together in a similar manner to that in Britain. Posters were commissioned by the Federal Parliamentary War Committee (then headquartered in Melbourne) and individual states also produced their own posters. In June 1915, the Minister for Defence set recruitment goals at 5,300 men per month in order to maintain the forces fighting at Gallipoli. Although British posters – the PRC designs that could be spared – were exported to Australia, there was a preference arguably forced upon them to adapt the best British ones, or produce their own designs.
The motivations for Australians enlisting were multilayered. Their enthusiasm was due to a sense of adventure, well-paid exotic travel (at five shillings a day for those serving overseas, it was the highest wage of any army at the time) and comradeship combined with machismo and patriotic feelings towards Britain.
The love of outdoor pursuits, riding and sports generated many memorable recruitment posters of the period.49 Among the leading exponents of Australian propaganda poster design – and the most controversial – was Norman Lindsay (1879–1969). He outlined his commitment to the government and his support of the propaganda effort in his autobiography My Mask (Angus and Robertson, 1970) in which he revealed that he ‘handed [his] services over to propaganda whenever it was required of [him]’.
The controversial ‘German Monster’ poster (Priv.)
Lindsay’s THE TRUMPET CALLS was produced by William Gullick, the government printer based in Sydney, New South Wales, on behalf of the Australian Commonwealth Government in 1915. According to Museum Victoria in Melbourne this was a popular poster ‘depicting a soldier in khaki with a bugle to his mouth, looking urgently over his right shoulder. Four soldiers lie beneath him, each aiming a firearm. One has a bandaged head. Behind the bugler appear shadowy figures of civilians, including a stockman, surfer, labourer in leather jerkin, and a well-dressed middle-class couple.’
Six of Lindsay’s posters were intended to be posted at various stages in the last few months of 1918. The first was GERMAN MONSTER, which was secretly posted overnight in October. This poster retains the power to shock today through the image of a bestial figure with its bloodstained hands grasping a globe, representing German militarism. Its contentious nature raised questions in the Federal Parliament. Lindsay is likely to have been inspired by H.R. Hopps’ brutal American poster of 1917, captioned ‘Destroy This Mad Brute – Enlist’. It depicted a moustachioed ape-like monster wearing the German soldier’s spiked helmet (the pickelhaube worn at the beginning of the war) and carrying a blood-stained club, marked ‘Kultur’, in his right hand and a dishevelled woman over his left arm.
Lindsay’s GERMAN MONSTER was followed by three posters: QUICK!; GOD BLESS DEAR DADDY WHO IS FIGHTING THE HUN AND SEND HIM HELP; as well as WILL YOU FIGHT NOW OR WAIT FOR THIS, which portrayed the German enemy as a brutal barbarian and violator. However, according to some sources, another two designs – THE LAST CALL and FALL-IN! (the latter poster depicted smiling soldiers marching) – were printed but were deemed not suitable for public display.50
A Lindsay poster from 1917 (Priv.)
Poster by Troedel & Cooper (State Library of Victoria)
Lindsay was born in Creswick, Victoria, and is widely regarded as one of Australia’s greatest artists. His former home at Faulconbridge, New South Wales, is now the Norman Lindsay Gallery and Museum. In addition to painting, he practised as a cartoonist, sculptor and writer. He also boxed.
Boxing was popular in Australia and it was a useful skill in battle. One popular recruitment poster published in 1917 by the State Parliamentary Recruiting Committee, depicted Lieutenant Albert Jacka, VC, as a role model for a huge campaign to enlist sportsmen into the Australian Imperial Force. Jacka achieved instant fame back home when he became the first Australian to win the Victoria Cross during World War I, on 19th July 1915. According to information from the Australian War Memorial records, it was said that one of the reasons he was such a good soldier, and had such a fighting attitude ‘was that he had been a boxer before the war. The campaign to enlist sportsmen was fuelled by a strong belief that by playing sport young men developed specific skills and qualities that could be used on the battlefield.’
Poster featuring Lt. Jacka, winner of the VC (Priv.)
An adap
tation of Leete’s KITCHENER design was printed in 1917 by Troedel & Cooper in Melbourne, and had the slogan ‘Which? MAN You Are Wanted! In The Sportsmen’s 1000’. To the upper left of the poster is a picture of a military medal and to the right are images of sports equipment.
Another variant was produced by the Tasmanian-born architect, artist, cartoonist and illustrator Harry John Weston (1874–1955). Entitled U ARE WANTED IN THE SPORT’S UNIT, and printed by Stewart Black Lithographers, Sydney, it was published by the Sportsmen’s Recruiting Committee in 1917 and featured the pointing finger of an Australian soldier. It was inspired both by Leete’s Kitchener cartoon and PRC poster number 125 WHO’S ABSENT? IS IT YOU?, a design that was also a Leete variant and replaced Lord Kitchener with John Bull. This last named poster was sent to Australia and one can still be seen as part of the official Australian war records in the National Archives, Canberra.
An adaptation of poster PRC 82 (LoC)
The statistics for Australian participation in World War I are bewildering. On the eve of war, Australia had a population of 4.9 million, but 416,809 Australian soldiers enlisted, including more than 400 indigenous Australians, with 331,000 men serving overseas. By the end of the war, 61,966 Australian servicemen had died.
